Viral. BRAVIA. DI. Reader. Handycam. Alpha. Drop. Walkman. Business | Sony sees first loss in 14 years. Electronics giant Sony has said it is going make its first annual loss in 14 years as the global economic slowdown hits demand for its products. For the financial year ending in March, Sony said it expected to make a net loss of 150bn yen ($1.7bn, £1.2bn). The company also blamed a strong yen for making its exports more expensive. Sony had forecast as recently as October that it would make a profit this year. The expected loss was much bigger than analysts had anticipated. Last year, Sony made a profit of 369.4bn yen, but its fortunes have changed as the global downturn has hit home. Currency fluctuations In October, it cut its profit forecast in half and shortly after announced it would lay off 8,000 employees and shut some manufacturing plants.
Sony is particularly sensitive to currency fluctuations since about 80% of its sales come from overseas. The yen is at a 13-and-a-half-year high against the dollar, which has eroded Sony's foreign earnings. Other electronics firms are also suffering. Minnesota Game Examiner: Sony's epic fail: The 5 major blun. Because a normal failure isn’t epic enough by itself. Sony, with the Playstation 3, dedicated to the art of fiasco, obliterated the competition by having no less than five huge mistakes, probably more, that kicked them from the head of the pack to barely limping behind in today’s console war. #1: Grrr… Look at our big hardware!
Arguably, the Playstation 2 was at the top of the previous generation console war. The Xbox was just getting into the swing of things, barely sustained by the various Halos. Microsoft’s mammoth did, however, sport some slightly more impressive hardware. Sony must have taken this personally, because they spent all manner of time and finance on the PS3, loading it with the absolute most ritzy meats and cheeses providing a massively powerful system, well ahead of the competition.
The only problem it hasn’t been utilized. . #2: Lets have a big fancy home entertainment system. Great idea, in theory. . #3: Lets make games into interactive films. #4: Lets fight the wrong war. Plummeting profit could help Howard Stringer turn Sony around - With the consumer electronics industry's eyes on him, Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer was trying to show how the Japanese company planned to return to its past glory. But, as he has found often during his time running Sony, the talent won't always follow the script. Tom Hanks was invited to spice up Stringer's presentation at this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Instead, the actor mocked Sony, belittled its technology and informed the audience that the teleprompter screens were made by rival LG Electronics. Still, Stringer rolled with the punches and won back the audience. "I took a risk -- it failed," he said of inviting Hanks. "But we'll still be friends.
" As with his CES keynote, Stringer has figured out ways to turn misfortune into an advantage. "There is still too much old Sony and not enough new," Stringer said during a news conference last week, when Sony warned investors to expect its first annual loss since 1995 for the year ending March 31. Low Light Photography, Twilight Football. Can Outsourcing Save Sony? Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking. Virtual Music Festival from Sony | Sony's Fantasy Festival. Sony Pictures CEO hates the Internet | Software, Interrupted - C. I wrote last week about Sony CEO Howard Stringer's comments suggesting Sony could have beaten Apple in digital music if only the had embraced open technology. While technology certainly could play a role in Sony's success, it's clear that the company needs a whole new way of thinking. At a breakfast Thursday cohosted by the S.I.
Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and The New Yorker, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton told the audience his not-so-inner thoughts about the Internet. "I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet... (The Internet) created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It's as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. According to WWD.com Lynton tried out another simile. Rules of the road are one thing, but these type of short-sighted, borderline absurd comments suggest a more systemic problem. Supplements: Total entertainment at heart of Sony’s strategy - M. Matt Coombe, marketing chief for Sony in the UK, might be in charge of bringing entertainment to millions but he remains resolutely unstar-struck. While his day job involves leveraging his parent company’s assets to shoot ads with celebrity footballers and using James Bond films to promote his products, Coombe himself seems unaffected by the showbiz sparkle.
He is more concerned with working behind the scenes to bring together Sony’s multiple divisions to work with each other and create what he calls one “total entertainment package”. While AC Milan footballer Kaka kicks balls in ads to show off Sony’s smooth TV screen technology, Coombe is more concerned with getting the group’s diverse units to act as “one Sony”. “It’s a big ambition of the company to be one Sony. It seems a much bigger, more powerful message to consumers than me just marketing a television to an audience. That’s really where we are heading,” he enthuses. Coombe now needs to take this strategy further.